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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Conder101, post: 1255957, member: 66&quot;]I learned with Penny Whimsy and it is a great book, but if you get one make sure you don&#039;t get the 1990 edition, the plates are horrible.&nbsp; most people like the 1976 edition but I tend to prefer the 1958 or 1965 editions.&nbsp; I find the Breen large cent book excellent as well.&nbsp; It is a little harder to find but it has a lot more background information, more die state information and large images.&nbsp; The quality of the images could be a little better and there are a few images in the wrong place but it is still really good.&nbsp; It also show ALL of the known die varieties including those discovered since Penny Whimsy came out in 1965.&nbsp; Down side is it is considerably larger than Penny Whimsy.&nbsp; PW is small enough it can be carried to shows, but the Breen book is really too large.&nbsp; A third book that is very good is William Noyes United States Large Cents 1793 - 1814.&nbsp; Excellent book (Much of the text is lifted directly from PW), large images with arrows pointing out the diagnostic points, all the varieties.&nbsp; Possibly useful for taking to shows.&nbsp; Down side if the images are of the same as his middle date book, then the images could have been better.&nbsp; EXPENSIVE.&nbsp; You can&#039;t buy just the early date book, it is only sold bundled with the middle date book as well at a cost of $240.&nbsp; Not bad if you want both but high if you only want the early book.&nbsp; If you could get just the early book it would be $140 and for that you could get both PW and the Breen book and still have money left over.</p><p><br /></p><p>I tend to use my own set of notes that I developed for identifying varieties in low grades (A lot of the diagnostics mentioned in the standard references are great if you are looking at a coin in Fine or better.&nbsp; When PW was written 1794 large cent in Fine were a dollar apiece.&nbsp; In low grade many of those diagnostics are gone.)&nbsp; I also use the Breen book, and for carrying at shows my favorites are the auction catalogs of Robbie Brown&#039;s first collection from 1986, or Jack Robinson&#039;s collection from 1989.&nbsp; These catalogs are great because they contain all the Sheldon numbered varieties and most of the NC&#039;s.&nbsp; Every lot is plated, and the diagnostics of each variety are listed in the description.&nbsp; Price is good too, about $20 to $30.&nbsp; Extra advantage, they also contain all the middle date varieties as well.&nbsp; They also have the late date varieties but they can&#039;t be identified using the catalog images.&nbsp; The Jack Robinson catalog&nbsp; has the additional advantage of including almost all of the half cent varieties as well!&nbsp; In most cases for the early and middle dates and in the case of Jack Robinson half cents, the descriptions also indicate what other varieties the obv and rev dies were used on.&nbsp; Helps on confirmations etc.&nbsp; I&#039;m on my third copy of the Jack Robinson catalog now and it has been used so much it is now broken down into individual pages.</p><p><br /></p><p>Downside. They are getting harder to find since they are over twenty years old.&nbsp; The images are actual size, and they are high quality halftones, not the high quality images we are used to seeing in catalogs today.&nbsp; I have been disappointed in the catalog of every major large cent collection sold since the Jack Robinson sale.&nbsp; What would have really been a masterpiece would have been the Dan Holmes large cent collection coins and images, with the cataloging descriptions of the Robbie Brown and Jack Robinson sales.&nbsp; You know, that gives me an idea.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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